Ethnio has come on a lot since I last checked – now it’s looking pretty damn good.

Ethnio is a tool for finding participants for user research by enlisting live users from your website. If you’re not sure what I mean by that, take a look at this explanatory video, charmingly made in felt using stop motion.

Ethnio requires you to have a live website that already has a decent user-base, so it’s not suited to early-stage research or non-web products.

It’s strength is in the amount of money it saves you. Normally, recruiting end users for face-to-face user research is hideously expensive. For example, in London, if you have specific criteria for your users, you’re talking £100 for the recruitment plus £50 incentive (i.e. payment for participation).

Ethnio is completely free to use, and it cuts out the recruitment costs – you pay users an incentive, and that’s it.